Interview with Dan Jackson

I’ve recently discovered the work of Dan Jackson, and i have to say, I have a crush on his photographs. Irreverent pictures of little people doing everyday things with food, what’s not to love? He was kind enough to answer some questions for me, and I’m here to pass the answers along to you!

1. What did you have for breakfast this morning?

Two slices of toast with butter on and a cup of tea.

2. What do you find most inspiring about where you live?Erm. Not sure to be honest. I don’t think I am really inspired by where I live, most of the inspiration comes from things I see online, on TV and mainly just in my funny old head!

4. Is etsy/creating your full time business? If not, what do you do in real life?

No, not at all. I work in insurance claims full time Mon-Fri. I handle people’s claims after they have accidents in their cars. Been doing it for about 7 years now.

5. What on earth gave you the idea to photograph little people working on food?

I was inspired by the work of Slinkachu – www.slinkachu.com – A London based street artist who makes his own “little people” and places them in little scenes on the streets. He photographs them and then leaves them there for people to find. The food ideas came from some other websites I had stumbled across showing that people other than me and Slinkachu were doing similar things with models of little people.

I generally buy the models first and THEN think of what situations I am going to put them in.

6. Was there someone in your life who was a creative inspiration for you?

I suppose I got my love of photography from my mother. She’s always been into taking photos. The rest of it comes from my strange little brain!!

7. What else do you make other than art that you’re great at?

Other than my little people, I take all sorts of photos of scenery, animals etc. I also make a nice chicken salad!

8. When did you first start creating things?

I first started taking photographs about 7 years ago when I got my first digital camera. Because it was so easy to take shots and discard them with digital I found this a great way to get into photography as you could take loads of shots and not worry about printing costs if 90% turned out to be awful.

The little people range of shots has been very recent. I only started taking them about 6 months ago and only started selling them online in December.

9. What is your creative process like?

I don’t have one! Honestly. 99% of the time I don’t even think about new ideas. I just wait till they pop in my head. Sometimes I’ll see something on TV or in a shop that might give me a brainwave. But generally, I let the ideas come to me rather than go looking for them.

10. What’s a cool thing that you think everyone should know about?

I have the same name as one of the main characters in “Stargate” but because I have had people telling me this for years I have made a point of never watching it. Therefore I am probably the only male in my demographic who has never seen Stargate!

11. What’s the craziest thing that’s ever happened to you?

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12. Where’s your dream vacation spot?

Probably a remote island, somewhere warm, with hardly any people, a nice hotel or villa. Peace and quiet and cloudless skies.

13. What’s the last thing you bought online?

A pair of hiking shoes for our trip to Scotland (£15) a screen protector for my new iPod Touch (£2) and a USB card reader (£8)

14. In a perfect world without the constraints of reality, what would you be doing?

Not have to work. Just laze about all day playing on my PC / Xbox / PS3 etc. Although I’d probably get bored, it’s 1000 times better than work isn’t it??

If we’re really stretching the bounds of reality, I’d love to be a racing driver!

15. Do you make a signature dish? What is it?

Not really. I experiment with stuff. As I said before I am making chicken salads a lot at the moment, with goats cheese. Very healthy! I have a go at cooking anything, usually with varying degrees of success.